


If An Age-Old Wizard Reborn Can't Climb The Ladder Of Power, Who Can?

by BookwormMDCCCXIII



Series: The World Is Hellbent On Being Destroyed [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, But not really the real world, Gayness, Gen, Inspired by real world, M/M, Magic Exists, Oral Sex, actual sex, and complicated, and is weird, but not reincarnation, craziness, implied sex, it's tricky, magical reincarnation, some school, weird magicalness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:01:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 26
Words: 16,942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26141524
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookwormMDCCCXIII/pseuds/BookwormMDCCCXIII
Summary: Benjamin Diaz is not your average fifteen-year-old. For one, he's getting pretty powerful. Secondly, he's also not sure he's fifteen.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Series: The World Is Hellbent On Being Destroyed [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2075076
Comments: 57
Kudos: 3





	1. Dreams Suck and Oh Procrastination Too.

It was loud. Metal clashing against metal, ice and rock being blasted to teeny tiny pieces, with the crackle of flames rounding out the background noise. A group stood near the city wall, clearly concentrating with beads of sweat beginning to form. However, a battle cry sounded from Ben's left, and he turned to see an army led by a winged woman with a mace, as did everyone else. As soon everyone realised they were still in a battle for the city, the group near the wall cried out as they fell to the ground, and the man leading the attack swiped through the air with his sword and the city guard were flung back. He marched up to the gates and prep-

Benjamin Diaz woke up, sweat dripping from his face and heart racing a 5K. He climbed out of bed and headed for the shower, pledging to talk to the headmistress about this. In all the thirty-seven opportunities he had to do so, he had excuses for all of them. "She seemed busy.", "This food's too good.", "But my friend is telling me about his little sister's baseball game and I can't interrupt him."

He slipped into the shower, casually casting a silencing spell around the shower as he always did when he showered late at night. He always had questions with these dreams. He never knew who anyone was, yet saw them with perfect clarity, remembered them long after the dream ended, and wasn't even sure it happened. He knew he should do something about it, especially after Ms Kol looked at him oddly after, he just never felt like it. He walked back into the dormitory and fell onto his bed, desperately trying to fall asleep but failing.


	2. The Headmistress Really Has Too Much Free Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To clear up update order, I will hold myself to one chapter/week, but may update more frequently.

Ben took notes, extremely bored. By now, Mr Hicks had once again gone off track and was now explaining to the class Cumberson's theory, which stated that one could manipulate another via the emotions or something like that, Ben didn't care about it after the first three sentences. He would probably incinerate those notes later. Good riddance.

Finally, Mr Hicks dismissed them and Ben gathered up his supplies and headed for the mess hall to get his food and head off with his friends. Suddenly, Ben's worst nightmare came true. The Headmistress, Ms Pulop, or Olivia, as she preferred everyone to call her by, walked over to Ben and said, "Come with me," as she walked away and towards her office, and so Ben followed. She opened her door, allowing Ben in first, before closing it behind her.

"Why am I here?" Ben asked. 

"Your teachers have... observed that you have been acting odd. And that you have nearly fallen asleep several times. Also, directly quoting Ms Teiga here, 'Ben was instructed to practice a basic ignition spell for a warm-up and managed to cause a small explosion. Any reason?"

"No, just tired I guess."

Olivia stared at him deeply, as if questioning all his life choices. "You're lying," she said, in a sweet tone that was disapproving but not angry.

Along with being the headmistress of the most prestigious magical school in the country, Olivia was an expert in fire, mind, and emotional magic, having hundreds of papers published. Ben should've known she'd see right through his lie. "I've been having strange dreams," he blurted out. _Fuck,_ he thought. The last time he had strange was years ago, when his affinity for mind magic was revealed when Ben found out those strange dreams were the dreams of others that he was experiencing.

"Again? Even with the pillow?" Ben nodded. The pillow was an enchanted one, to keep other's dreams away. It didn't sound like a problem, but Ben didn't fancy dreaming about being consumed by ants halfway across the world. "Do you mind sharing?"

Ben shook his head, and raised his fingers to her forehead, feeling what could be described as water rushing through his arm, and it concentrated in his fingertips before being released as he touched the Headmistress' forehead. They both promptly fell unconscious


	3. Sometimes The World Really Really Hates You

"Woah!" Ben said to no one in particular, surprised. _Where had that darn tree come from?_ Ben for sure thought that now the trees were out to get him.

Or maybe he should just pay more attention.

Nah, believing that the trees were conspiring to kill him was more fun.

Speaking of paying attention, Ben looked at his watch as he caught his breath, before audibly sighing. He had only twenty minutes to get back to the school in time for lunch. 

And mail, mail was good. But Ben was hungry and tired. He had stayed up the previous night studying, and didn't realize how much it actually took out of him until he decided to go for a run, _before_ he had eaten. 

He began jogging back to the building, before realizing he was supposed to get an update on his mom's battle with cancer. So far, she had been getting better, and she was looking good. That alone vanished all his exhaustion and he upgraded his jog to a sprint. He reached the front doors just as the mailman pulled away. He went up to his dormitory where Jack would have all the mail since he also grabbed it just after the mailman delivered it. 

Sure enough, Jack was there, tossing out mail to the rest of his dormmates.

He shifted through the mail before smiling, "Here you go," and he threw the letter at Ben, who caught it. He ripped it open, too excited to care for magicking it open, and took the paper out. He looked dead on at the paper, reading it through.

Suddenly, time seemed to slow down. His excitement dissipated and Ben's heart rate increased as he read down slowly, word by word. His head felt heavy, as the others noticed something wrong and began asking him if he was okay. But he didn't hear them, for all he knew they were millions of miles away. Pressure built up in his chest as he slowed down his reading even further, knowing exactly where the letter was going, but not wanting to confront it, but still. He pressed through, reading as his head got heavier and his chest got tighter until he reached the five words he dreaded the most.

_Your mother has passed away._

He sunk to the floor, a great big emptiness filling him up. He no longer felt hungry or tired, nor excited or elated. He felt... like nothing. He was aware, aware of his magic making the others in the room unwelcome. Aware of them leaving the room, and aware of his magic warding the room off. But he didn't feel anything. He stared straight ahead, not knowing where to look as he tried to process those five words.


	4. When You're Going Through Hell, Keep Going.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Is it weird to feel excited about a character's mother's death?

Suddenly, the door, for all the miles of wards placed on it by Ben accidentally, flew backwards, blasted back with flames.

"The fuck, dude, do you have so many wards on that damned thing?" Eddie said as he walked in. His full first name was Edward, but no one called him that unless they find a faceful of fire appealing. 

"Come on dude, get up. You've got no time to be moping around," Eddie said, apparently, as Ben would learn later, someone had informed him of his loss. "You've barely got the rest of the day and tomorrow to get over this and then you've got class. Unless you're going to miss class, which would be really out of character for you."

While Ben had been trying to tune Eddie out, Eddie had been preparing a water jet spell. A cold one. A really cold one. 

"Ugh," Eddie muttered, before directing the water jet spell at Ben, drenching him. Ben looked at him, as his emotions started to conflict with one another. On one hand, Ben wanted to just be alone, on the other, he liked Eddie, he was a nice enough dude who had everyone's best intentions at heart. Healsomayhaveacrushontheguybutwedonttalkaboutthatlikeever. 

Giving in, Ben stood and tossed his arms around Eddie, wetting the other boy's shirt as he pulled him in for a hug. 

"That's better. Now, dry yourself off and come eat with me, would you? You're not too bad of a dormmate, and I'd hate to see who'd replace you if you starved yourself to death." Eddie commanded, getting a laugh out of Ben.

"Aye, did you have to make a mess?" Ben teased, as he tried to not break down again. He wasn't completely there yet, but good enough.

"I could've made a mess somewhere else," Eddie teased right back, tone and posture indicating a sexual nature. But then again, Ben thought, this was Eddie, the guy who pretended to flirt with another dormmate, Kyle, for weeks and then wait until Kyle finally started to reciprocate to say that it was all innocent in intent and that Kyle, and everyone in a fifty-foot radius, had misinterpreted. So he just gave a suggestive smile. 

Ben began to take down the wards, not understanding what he'd done. But he was doing a pretty good job of dissolving them, so he didn't need to understand what he'd done. He figured he would take the next weekend to just cry it out, but for now, he had to eat. And sleep. Sleep too.

After finishing taking down the wards, Ben dried himself off with a basic drying spell, before doing the same with the floor. Then he sat on his bed and watched as Eddie struggled to put the door back on. He fixed the scorched parts easily but failed to fix the damage caused by the collision with the wall, which Ben personally thought was extremely funny. 

"Whatcha laughing at?" Eddie asked, pretending to be offended.

"You. You're funny, Eddie," Ben straight up told him, no beating around the bush. 

"I'm not funny, I'm Eddi- ouch!" Eddie was rudely interrupted by an electric shock from Ben.

"Not the dad jokes. Not a fucking single one," Ben warned. 

"Hey, wanna go to a cafe or something? Just the two of us?" Eddie asked.

"As friends, or like a date?" Ben asked back. 

"I was thinking more of a date if you're up for it," Eddie answered.

"I know a good cafe," was Ben's only response, which got a grin out of Eddie.

Just then, by sheer coincidence, Eddie managed to fix the door and put it back in the door frame, connecting the hinges, and the two went to go eat.


	5. Dates Are Good And All, But We've Still Got A Plot Here

Ben was rudely awoken by loud moaning and the sounds of a bed in distress. From experience, Ben could tell Kyle and Jack had been going at it a while. He could definitely tell that when he noticed the weakness of the stability spell placed upon the bed. He quietly strengthened it, feeding power into it, and the bed got quieter. Of course, there were still two horny fucks having sex, but Ben could zap them later. 

Deciding he could no longer sleep, he got out of bed and prepared for his meeting with Patrick Hus, Olivia's friend and one of the most reputable wizards in the nation. Why he insisted on having a meeting at such an ungodly hour, Ben did not know. 

Dressed and ready, he slipped out of his dorm and went to Olivia's office, where the meeting would take place. Opening the door, he found said wizard already sitting across from Olivia. Ben took the seat next to him.

"Why hello there! Any more dreams lately?" Patrick asked.

"Did the sun forget to rise?" Ben remarked.

"I see your point," Patrick conceded. "Anyways, we've come to the conclusion that you are the reincarnation of a powerful wizard."

"That doesn't make sense," Ben said.

"You wer-" Patrick tried to get out before being cut off.

"No, in one of my earlier dreams, there were these massive warships in outer space, having a huge battle, before arriving just above the Mediterranean. And in another, a supernova was triggered with the press of a button," Ben pointed out. "How could I be a reincarnation of some wizard if everything in my past life couldn't have happened in the past?"

"You never mentioned anything about those," Patrick raised an eyebrow.

"Well there were so many of them I couldn't have mentioned them all," Ben protested.

"Well then, this complicates things. Let's go back to the drawing board and try to figure out how the fuck you have futuristic memories," Patrick said as he took out a book. "I suppose I'll have to consult someone else."

"Who?" Ben asked.

"Elena Lopez, the top researcher in everything strange," Patrick smiled.

"Okay. Fine. Now, may I leave?" Ben asked. He had a rather important place to go.

"Sure," Olivia dismissed him.


	6. School Doesn't Care About Your Personal Life

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> School time.

Ben was frustrated. Their next few weeks, according to Ms Teiga, would be taking spells previously learned, and applying them with precision. One such spell was a drying spell. Ms Teiga had given them all wet shirts for them to try and spell something out. Ben had personally chosen the words, "REINCARNATION SUCKS," and had already planned it out in his head. He would dry out the words, and "REINCARNATION" was above "SUCKS". "REINCARNATION" would also stretch from end to end while "SUCKS" would be centred, but with similar spacing to "REINCARNATION".

Now, a plan was good and all, but when Ben tried to cast the spell, holding the image of the shirt in his brain, and trying to dry out the words, well, let's just say it looked like a printer out of ink. Parts of the words dried up, but others just stayed wet, rendering it incomplete. Ben scowled and cast a small water jet spell, wetting the shirt again. This time, he tried to imagine the words drying up, instead of making a still image a reality, and ending up succeeding. Mostly. He had focused mostly on "REINCARNATION" and had ignored the "SUCKS". With another scowl, Ben dried out the word, finding it much easier now. Ms Teiga came by a minute later, congratulating Ben and wetting the shirt again. 

Ben was so ready to zap him, but Eddie suddenly appeared behind him. 

"Wow, no progress, huh?" Eddie teased, although he absolutely would've seen Ms Teiga re-wet it because of how far he sat. 

"You're the worst," Ben replied, zapping him instead. Eddie just shrugged it off.

"You weren't saying that last night," Eddie teased. Ben immediately felt some heat rising to his face. Since they didn't change dormmates at all, each student spent a good portion of puberty with their fellow students. Well, put several horny teenagers in a room with no privacy and it was pretty much accepted that they would fuck. Eddie's and Ben's first time together had been when they were twelve. Ben had bottomed the night previous.

"Speaking of which, I want to take you out tonight," Ben said, changing the subject.

"Really? Where?" Eddie asked. Their first date a week ago went smoothly. 

"A Korean restaurant named Honey Pig," Ben smiled. He wasn't the hugest fan of Korean food, but he loved Honey Pig none the less. Also Ben wanted to make sure he wasn't dating a monster. 

"I'm sure I'll love it if you do," Eddie said as Ben dried out the words again, before zapping Eddie.

"Can you stop being a walking pickup line?" Ben asked as he wet the shirt and dried it up again.

"Not around you, no," Eddie smiled. 

"You're an idiot," Ben said, smacking the back of Eddie's head.

"Hey!" Eddie protested, fake pouting.

Ben smiled as he looked at his boyfriend. Then the smile morphed into a smirk and Eddie's face suddenly displayed a look of genuine fear. 

Ben stood, picking up Eddie bridal style, walking him over to Pat, another dormmate, a laughing one, and dropped Eddie right there and then. He walked back to his desk, where Maryam, a good friend of Ben's was watching from. 

"That's one way of dealing with annoying boyfriends. I'll keep that in mind," she remarked.

"Glad to be of service. How was your project by the way?" Ben asked, remembering the extra credit project she got assigned. 

As she began to talk all about it, Ben looked around, surrounded by people he'd known for years, and smiled. He may have had a past life, but he really couldn't care less.


	7. Finally, A Date

Ben waited in the front entrance. There were several ways to get around as a wizard, but most ways were extremely tiring and/or difficult. One of the only easy and not-gonna-make-you-faint ones was travelling via an established portal, with the added bonus of anyone could use them, whether or not they could use magic. As one could expect, the federal government had established "portal centres" around the country in various population centres, with states further expanding them. The school wasn't located far from the Washington Portal Center.

Finally, Eddie arrived. "What took you so long?" Ben asked as they moved for the door. 

"Well, I was getting dressed, and Jack wanted to come to help me out..." Eddie trailed off.

"I swear I have the horniest boyfriend ever," Ben muttered. 

"No one else is complaining," Eddie smiled.

"That's because they're not the ones who have to wait for you," Ben sighed, putting his arm around Eddie and kissing him.

Then, they were standing in front of the building, a three-story building. The first floor had the portals connected to other portal centres, while the second had portals rented out to businesses with public space and the third was reserved for international travel.

Eddie smiled as he pulled Ben into the building, fishing out two dollars and handing it to the guard before leading Ben to the stairs. They arrived on the third floor, and entered one of the portals, with Ben picturing their destination, a cold night breeze hit them. 

"Come on," Ben grinned as he walked in, Eddie following.

He walked over to the counter. "Hi, could I have a table for two?" he asked the girl behind the counter.

"Absolutely! Your number is 74," the girl said. Ben went to go sit with Eddie as they waited. He looked up at the number slowing going up.

"So much stuff hanging," Eddie noted. 

"Yeah, I've seen them a thousand and a half times," Ben remarked, as ATEEZ's "Say My Name" came on.

"I looked at them a couple of times, but now all I see is you," Eddie whispered to Ben, which had him going red.

"S-Shut up," Ben said.

"I have a few ideas of how you can shut me up," Eddie continued to whisper.

"Later, I'm hungry," Ben shoved Eddie lightly.

"I'm hungry too," Eddie smiled.

At that time, Ben noticed that the number on the display now read "74." 

"Oh look, our table's ready," and a waiter came to take them over to their table. 

Ben sat down, not even looking at the menu as he ripped open the chopsticks. 

Eddie frowned. "You're not going to order anything?" 

"I am, I just already know what I want," Ben said.

"Well, I would like this, this, and this," Eddie pointed to several items. A smile broke out on Eddie's face as Ben's dropped.

"I'm dating a monster. An absolute monster," Ben scowled. 

Eddie laughed, as a waiter came around and took their orders. 

Ben looked at Eddie, wondering how he ever found a boyfriend like him.

Pretty quickly, the waiter came back around and delivered two bowls of white rice, with two spoons.

"Hey, could I have some soy sauce?" Ben asked the waiter, as he turned up the heat.

"Why is there a fire?" Eddie asked.

"They heat up some of the food at the tables," Ben explained.

The food came and went, and the two talked and laughed the entire time. Ben was pretty sure that meal was the best he'd ever had at Honey Pig.


	8. Magic Is Hard, Even For Non-Wizards.

Ben waited outside an expensive-looking restaurant for... someone? He wasn't sure who it was, all he remembered was it was a high-level government official with zero knowledge of magic that wanted to know more and had chosen Ben to explain it since "everyone else uses real fancy words." Ben had mostly agreed out of confusion.

Why she couldn't have found someone else, he didn't know. Finally, a car pulled up and out stepped a well-dressed woman who gestured for Ben to follow her inside the restaurant, which he did. She led him to a private room into which they both entered.

"Sorry, but who are you again? I've forgotten," Ben opened.

"I'm Jennifer Hus, assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division," Jennifer introduced herself. "Your name?"

"Benjamin Diaz," Ben answered. "But call me Ben."

"So Ben, why is it that certain people have magic from birth and everyone else has to learn it?" Jennifer asked. Her tone indicated genuine curiosity.

"Well, everyone is on a spectrum, if you will, of magical ability. We have no idea what causes this, but we know it isn't hereditary. The higher you are on the spectrum the more intuitive magic seems. We have no idea why, if you're gonna ask that next," Ben supplied.

"And where do wizards get their magic? Surely they don't just manifest it out of nowhere," Jennifer asked.

"We're not entirely sure. A theory is starting to gain momentum in the research community but barely has any evidence, so lots of people are rejecting it. The theory, well actually it's more of a hypothesis, but whatever, says that wizards get their magic from physical manifestations of the elements," Ben explained, as simply as he could.

"I don't understand," Jennifer commented.

"So, like, you know all that elemental stuff people like to buy into? Like fire and earth and water?" With a nod from Jennifer, Ben continued. "Well, the physical manifestations could be like stars for fire and oceans for water. The theory says that there's seven of those. The mind, fire, water, ground, air, electricity, and death."

"Okay. So, theoretically, what would happen if you tried to make a giant ice statue out of nowhere?" Jennifer asked.

"Well, that would involve a mass movement of water to make the ice so there would probably be a physical toll on my body, it would depend on the location. It'd be a lot easier to make a giant ice statue in the middle of the ocean than in a desert, for example," Ben tried to limit himself, but magic was so intricate and complex his first three years at the school were purely theoretical. 

"You're not certain about this. I can tell. Why?" Jennifer asked. Goddamnit, Ben thought, she was a shrink.

"As I'm sure you are aware, magic only became legal in most parts of the world after WWII, since most European countries outlawed it before the Age of Exploration and, well, empire. And serious magical research only began to get sufficient funding back in the nineties. And even now, magical research needs to jump through hoops upon hoops to get sufficient funding for the most basic of studies," Ben ranted.

"Well, that's assuring. Anyways, I'm sure you're wondering why I'm asking you specifically and not anyone else?" Jennifer smiled.

"I did wonder that," Ben agreed.

"It's not just that I need to know more about magic, I already learned all of this from others. But I'm building a team of wizards to help the FBI's counterintelligence efforts. I asked your Headmistress which of her students had the most promising potential and she told me you were. Now, I know you're not finished with your schooling yet, but when you are, I'll happily offer you a spot on the team," Jennifer once again smiled. "Oo, look, here comes the food!"

Ben didn't really hear that food part. Well, he did, but his brain discarded it after a half-second, which Ben's friends would've had him sent to the hospital for. 


	9. Friends Are Important

Ben walked up to four laughing students, all friends of his. They were planning to go to an arcade. He sneaked around, putting a finger to his smiling lips, as he approached Nyle's backside. Then, with extreme proximity, he leaned into the older boy's ear, and said, "Boo."

Immediately after he said that he ducked, and rightfully so because a hand flew through the space his head previously occupied. 

"Ben!" Nyle said in a scolding tone. "What was that for?" 

"Fun," he answered as he swung his arms around Nyle, hugg- wait no, that was no hug, that was definitely Ben trying to squeeze the life out of Nyle. 

"May I- I breathe n- now?" Nyle asked.

"Sure," Ben released him, before hugging his other three friends present. "How many others are we waiting on?"

"Maryam, Ellie, Jack, Aidan, Julie, Kyle, Miranda and a few others," Kaitlyn provided, naming the ones she knew would get a reaction out of him.

"So not a small group," Ben noted.

"No. Did you think it was going to be?" Ellie, full name Ellenor Hawking, but call her Ellenor and you'll misplace something and never manage to find it.

"Maybe," Ben deflected, going in for a hug. "How are you?"

"Me? Fine. Joel asked me out the other day," Ellie smiled as she greeted the others.

"Poor guy. What'd you say?" Noel asked.

"One, what do you mean by 'poor guy', and I said yes," Ellie pretended to be taken back.

"Ellie, we all love you, but you know Joel is going to have a severely increased heart attack risk dating you," Maryam appeared out of nowhere, hugging Ben and greeting the others. 

In the following half-hour, lots of bickering occurred as more people arrived. Ben occasionally jumped in every here and now, but mostly hung back. When the Kaitlyn noted that everyone was present, Ben lead the group out of the door, mainly because he was a fast walker, was closer to the door, and wasn't talking to anyone at the time. 

Once outside, the group spread out a bit more, and Ben moved towards Aidan, a guy he had a crush on when he was ten.

"How you doing?" Ben asked, hands in pockets.

"Good. You?" Aidan asked.

"I've been alright. By the way, Eddie wanted me to ask you if you were interested in a threesome," Ben sprung on him.

"Wow, did he at least offer dinner or something?" Aidan chuckled.

"Nope. He's extremely horny, like all the time. Pretty sure he fucked both Jack and Kyle before they left the dorm," Ben smiled.

"I'll think about it. Hey, I recall you saying you were a skee ball champ?" Aidan smiled.

"You recall correctly. Think you could beat me?" Ben asked, in a fake scandalised way.

"Don't think. Know. I'm pretty good," Aidan smiled. 

"Oh it's on," Ben returned the smile. If he remembered correctly, the arcade was only another four blocks away. "Hey guys, Aidan and I are going to go ahead, okay!" He announced as he began to pick up speed, Aidan not far behind him, not even questioning it.

Soon they were standing in front of the arcade, and they hurried in, quickly loading up two cards and they rushed over to the skee ball game.

"You are so going to lose," Aidan boasted.

"Really? This coming from the guy who tried to throw a basketball to someone and hit the guy on the other side of the court on the back of his head while he was facing you? Yeah right," Ben reminded him.

"Shut up," Aidan said, and he did. They got to playing, as their other friends began pouring in. 

They ended up playing ten rounds, and Ben won seven of those ten. Miranda came up to them. "Beating Aidan's ass?" 

"Do you expect anything else?" Ben retorted.

"Not really, no," Miranda agreed.

"Hey! You both suck!" Aidan complained.

"You do remember I'm a lesbian, right?" Miranda teased, causing Aidan to go red in the face.

"Th- that's not wh- what I- I meant b- by th- that," Aidan stuttered, probably dying of embarrassment internally. 

Ben laughed and smiled at Aidan, very suggestively. It did nothing to help the amount of red on the other's face. 

He left Aidan alone with Miranda, which Aidan would personally have liked to decapitate Ben over, but things like the law and other humans prevented him, which Ben liked. He didn't fancy getting decapitated. 

He found Julie, who was playing Flappy Bird.

"Hey. Can I play against you?" Ben said, phrasing it to be a competition. Julie was very competitive.

"Absolutely! Swipe in!" Julie exclaimed as the bird hit the pole. "Hey, can I steal your boyfriend?"

"Sure, whatcha gonna use him for?" Ben asked.

"My brother wants to burn stuff and well, I thought I'd get an expert," Julie answered.

"I don't think being a pyromaniac makes you an expert on fire," Ben commented.

"No, but the flawless track record of Eddie and fire does," Julie frowned as she hit the pole. 

"True," Ben conceded. "Why are you asking me? Why don't you just ask Eddie?" 

"Well, my parents are backward misogynists and expect me to have a boyfriend," Julie tapped the jump button a little harshly at the mention of her parents.

"Ah. That's it. Do you want me to beat them up?" Ben asked, tilting his head.

"Nah. I got it. Also, I've got good word that Mr Hicks is going to give us a project soon. Want to team up?" Julie asked.

"Sure. This has been a very productive Flappy Bird session," Ben noted.

"Indeed. Your dorm still horny as fuck?" Julie asked.

"Did the sun rise today?" Ben asked

"Good point. We'll work in mine. Hardly anyone's in there when it's not the dead of night and it's better than the workroom," Julie had a tone of distaste to it. Which was warranted, the workroom had the unfortunate situation of being shared with the younger kids. The breakrooms were separated by age, but working in there was frowned upon. 

Ben and Julie talked about more stuff, until Jack realized the time and alerted everyone that indeed they should head back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea what sleep is.


	10. Friendship Has Its Benefits

Ben sat down next to Zachariah, a tall boy who often sat in the most secluded area of the cafeteria. Unbeknownst to Zach, Ben had recruited some of Zach's closest friends to regularly keep him company. It wasn't like they didn't like spending time with him, but Zach didn't do well in groups, a fact proven over the years, and so it was easier to coordinate everything behind his back so that Zach only had to interact with one person at a time.

"How you doing?" Ben asked as his bum hit the bench.

"I've been well," Zachariah answered in between stuffing his face.

"You ever think about not stuffing your face?" Ben teased.

"You ever think about not having sex?" Zach teased back.

"Gosh, no, Zach, why would you ever suggest something like that, you're a terrible friend," Ben scooted away a little in fake disgust, earning a laugh from Zach. 

"I'd like to be a good friend. A really good friend," Zach winked suggestively, and Ben wasn't entirely unconvinced that he performed a pants-tightening spell with that wink.

"I'd like that. Maybe tonight," Ben smiled. He and Eddie had discussed this a couple night prior when Eddie had had enough and pulled Ben into an unused closet to talk about monogamy. They had decided that sexual monogamy sucked and should go fuck off to fucklandia.

"Anyways, you gonna eat that?" Zach asked, pointing to Ben's lunch.

"Uh yeah, I have mental magic next and I cannot do that on an empty stomach," Ben answered, digging into his food.

"Aw. Maybe I can get more lunch somewhere else," Zach pouted, looking down. Ben was confused, until he saw where Zach was looking. 

_I can get behind this,_ Ben thought.


	11. The Mind Is Chalk Full of Distractions

Ben walked into Ms Kol's classroom, the mental magic teacher. Mental magic was typically a tricky subject, but it had always been Ben's best subject. They were currently learning how to read minds, which sounds simple, but because of the complexity of the human brain, really wasn't. 

As Ms Kol arrived at her desk, the candles went out, signalling that class had started. 

"When you are delving into the human mind, there will be many distractions. You may be distracted by anything from their heartbeat to that one embarrassing moment when they called their teacher 'mom' or 'dad'," Ms Kol began. "You must explore the mind with the utmost willpower and determination to stick to your goal.

"You will partner up with someone and discuss a memory you would like the other to retrieve. They must then bring that memory to the forefront of your mind, using it to override your senses and cause you to relive that memory. I suggest you select a happy memory and I also have pillows. Laying down is recommended. If you have any questions or concerns, please come to me directly," Ms Kol finished.

Ben looked across the room to Maryam. A couple of years back, another student had tried to toss an egg at someone to start a food fight, which wasn't uncommon in the cafeteria, and it missed and bounced off the table, bouncing onto the floor, which it bounced off again, before bouncing off the wall, then soaring over the student's head and bouncing off the wall opposite, before bouncing into the student's face and cracking. Ben had found it hilarious and laughed for three minutes straight. 

"Partners?" he asked Maryam as he approached her. 

"Sure," Maryam replied as she went to go retrieve pillows. "Do you want to go first?"

"Retrieving or giving?" Ben asked, not realizing the language he used until it was too late. 

"Whichever you want," Maryam said, holding back laughter.

"I'll give first. What memory would you like?" Ben asked her.

"My sixth birthday. It was... special. You'll know it when you see it," Maryam said, looking into space blissfully before plopping onto the pillows.

Ben sat down next to her head, crossing his legs as he placed his index and middle fingers onto her forehead. He felt his magic explore her forehead before he was suddenly sucked into a vortex of thoughts, memories, feelings, and commands. It was all swirling around him at lightspeed. 

There! He saw it! A young Maryam surrounded by presumed friends and family, with a cake displaying the number "6" and Maryam very clearly the centre of attention. He tried to grab it, but it evaded him like a fish. 

He looked around him some more. He saw some more things, like himself very clearly concentrating out in the physical world, but only saw that for a second.

 _The memory,_ Ben reminded himself. _The memory._ Then Ben saw an ice cream store and tried to retrieve it to see the location before remembering. _The memory._

This went on for some time, until he spotted it once more, and instead of trying to grab it, he immobilized it, preventing it from moving.

 _Bring it to the forefront of her mind,_ Ben remembered. He pulled it towards him, it taking a spherical shape. Then, he lightly pushed away everything else, temporarily clearing her mind of everything except the memory. He then gathered the sensations of the physical world and gathered it together in his palm, before clasping his other hand over it, holding it tightly shut, suppressing it. 

Then, he was no longer in Maryam's mind, no longer in the vortex that was the human mind. He was just sitting on the ground of Ms Kol's classroom, with an unconscious Maryam next to him. 

Suddenly, her eyes fluttered open, a smile appearing on her face. "My turn," she announced, getting up. "Your memory?"

"The Great Egg Backfire of 2018," Ben said, before lying down.

Maryam sat next to him as he did her. Her two fingers approached his forehead, and she stopped moving. It felt like an eternity of nothing, then he felt a tingling in his head, and then he was unconscious.


	12. Spending Time With Your Boyfriend is Important

As Ben entered the breakroom, he saw a chess game, a monopoly game, and a poker game. He also saw an Eddie, reading. 

"How was your mental magic class?" Ben asked his boyfriend, who closed his book.

"Good. I struggled a bit though. The memory kept evading me. Ms Kol had to show me," Eddie asked, getting a bit embarrassed at it since Ben was considered the best out of the student body at mental magic. 

"Aw, it's nothing to be worried about. Remember that time I accidentally caused an explosion trying to extinguish a candle?" Ben said as he tossed his arm around Eddie.

"That was pretty funny. Can I practice on you?" Eddie asked.

"Sure, once we get out of the breakroom. Remember the last time Olivia caught someone practising magic, she sent them to an unused and dusty room to practice there," Ben laughed.

"Let's go to the dorms then!" Eddie smiled as he got up and feverishly tugged on Ben.

"Someone's excited," Ben remarked.

"Not that kind of excited, Ben. Unless?" Eddie smiled suggestively.

"Kyle's in there," Ben pointed out.

"Excellent," Eddie said as the two exited the room. 


	13. Potions Are Fucking Awesome.

"Today," Mr Hicks explained, "We will delve into potions." This excited Ben, because he loved the prospects of potions, and the emotional magic class was scheduled to begin potions first.

"Potions can be big or small. You can brew a potion in the smallest of vials, or the largest of oceans, given the proper circumstances," Mr Hicks explained, "Today, we will brew a calming potion. Can anyone tell me what are the fundamental aspects of calm?" 

Ben raised his hands, along with seven others. 

"Miranda," Mr Hicks chose her.

"Relaxation and nothingness," Miranda answered.

"Correct. And this will matter a lot when selecting the ingredients of the potion. You must be careful in your selection, the wrong combination of ingredients could have a dangerous outcome. White baneberries and lithops are the most popular example, as the result is a slow and prolonged explosion," Mr Hicks explained. "We will be using sword lilies and shortleaf tree wood, along with an emotional potion template. You will go and retrieve the materials required in the potions closet and go into classroom 150C," Mr Hicks finished as his fingers snapped and a paper appeared on everyone's desk.

Ben took off, squeezing through the class and running to the potions closet, which he knew was the next door over to classroom 148B. He didn't bother with the stairs, instead using air magic to jump to the top. 

As he arrived at the closet, he waved his hand, opening the door. He then began to carefully collect the ingredients, making sure not to mess up the organization, otherwise, the janitors would have his head. 

He quickly dashed over to the other side of the hallway, to classroom 150C, as others who didn't care for speed arrived at the closet. He went inside the classroom, unsurprisingly finding Mr Hicks already there. The dude probably busted a hole in the roof/ceiling and got there, seeing as it was only a floor above his regular classroom. 

As the others began to file in, both Zach and Maryam laughed at Ben's obvious excitement. Ben would rather be shot than admit it, but he was practically buzzing in his seat. 

"Everyone please take a seat at one of the cauldrons, and proceed to fill it with water. After that, ignite the wood underneath it," Mr Hicks instructed once a good amount of the class was in the room. 

Ben began a water jet spell, and a stream of water appeared from... somewhere nobody knew where actually, seemingly peeling off of Ben's skin. The clean fresh water piled up and filled up the cauldron. Then, he took his hand and brought it above his head, igniting it, before tossing those flames at the wood, igniting them. Then, he boosted them, to speed up the heating. 

Mr Hicks didn't talk until the last cauldron was boiling, after which he said, "Now that the cauldrons are boiling, proceed to chop up the honeysuckle. Follow the instructions after that." No one seemed to know what instructions he was referring to until a paper was found on the side desk, which was mainly used to prepare the ingredients. 

He chopped up the honeysuckles as per the instructions and tossed them in. He felt like this class would be a good class.


	14. Violence is Never The Answer, But It's Always Fun

"Hey, Ben, wanna duel?" Ellie asked Ben on a late October morning. 

"Sure," Ben answered. Duels were kinda fun. They originated(or so the founders of duelling claimed), back in an all-magic kingdom that existed thousands of years ago. They would have young men and women duel elders, who were most often the most powerful, to prove that they were ready for adulthood, with the theory being each generation should be more powerful than the last. The validity of this claim is disputed, but it made for a fun time. 

"I'll go inform Ms Roberts," Ellie replied. Ms Roberts was the head nurse, and she watched over every duel in case of injuries.

"I'll meet you on the field then," Ben replied. As was customary at the school, all duels were held on the field as it was easy to repair. 

He exited the back doors, before jogging over to the field. Ellie and Ms Roberts soon emerged as well, making their way over. 

"You both know the rules, go on," she said, walking over to the middle left of the field, and created a bench out of rock before sitting on it. 

Ben and Ellie walked over to the middle of the field, marked by a scorched line. Standing on opposite sides of the line, they shook hands, turned around, and walked twenty steps from the line. As Ben turned around again, Ms Roberts shot a fireball into the sky, signalling the start of the duel as it fizzled out. 

Ellie shot a bolt of electricity at Ben. Wizards generally had higher tolerances of everything, excluding pain, and including electrical shocks, maybe. All the evidence was anecdotal since no ethics committee approved shocking both wizards and normal humans alike. 

Ben jumped high, fuelled by air magic, and shot a fireball at Ellie, before tossing an ice spike. Ellie created a slab of earth and used it to block both attacks, before tossing it at Ben.

Ben tore it apart, before getting hit by an extremely strong wind, knocking him back. Ellie then created a rock pillar right underneath him, launching him up. Ben, in a panic, caught himself using vines from the surrounding woods.

He ran for the woods, as Ellie pursued him, blasting fire at him, which Ben quickly jumped out of the way. She then shot an electric shock at his head, forcing him to duck. He caused a rapid growth of grass behind him, forcing Ellie to focus on that. Then, Ben's eyes spotted the lake, which was extremely useful for water practice. He changed course, heading straight for the lake. A good while on the way and Ben quickly moved to his left after a fireball came from his right. Shit, he thought. Ellie had caught up with him. He, with a little concentration, messed around with Ellie's head. Think, a tiny goblin causing mischief, but in Ellie's mind. This caused her to stumble a bit, giving Ben the opportunity to trap her in a dome of vines. 

As he neared the lake, he jumped in, before using some neat water magic to lift himself above the water on a tentacle of spiralling water. By now, Ellie had burnt through the vines he had summoned. He then caused a large amount of water to leave the lake and lift Ellie into the air, before freezing it, partially encasing Ellie in ice ten feet above the ground and, seeing Ellie indicate a surrender, he rode his water tentacle to the shores and slowly dropped to the sweet sweet ground exhausted.

He heard the sound of ice shattering as Ellie was lowered to the ground by Ms Roberts, who scanned her for injuries before sending her off, before coming over to check on Ben to do the same. 

As soon as Ms Roberts cleared him, he jogged over to Ellie. 

"Nice duel." He held out his hand.

"Nice duel. Thought I had you there for a second when you started running." Ellie smiled and shook his hand.

"I had no idea where I was going before I remembered the lake exists," Ben admitted.

"Hey, Ben, the lake exists," Ellie joked, getting shocked by Ben.

"You're just as bad as Eddie," Ben muttered.

"Maybe we'll team up," Ellie winked. 

"You two together would be the death of me," Ben sighed dramatically.

"I'll schedule the meeting as soon as possible," Ellie laughed.

"You're the worst," Ben muttered. 


	15. Unusual Dreams

Ben was sitting on a beach chair... somewhere. He heard vague sentences, which some part in the back of his mind recognized as French. Wait, how did he know what French sounded like? He never learnt a word of French! He had learned Dutch, German, and Icelandic with varying degrees of frustration and difficulty to varying degrees of proficiency over the past decade, but never French. 

A boy, shirtless and wet, like he had just come back from the waters, about his age, came up to him. Ben was totally down to fuck him. "Bonjour monsieur, comment allez-vous?" he said. 

Surprisingly, he responded, "Ça va bien. Et vous?" Holy shit, where had _that_ come from? He didn't understand a word of what he had just said. Then, he stood to shake the other's hand.

When he stood, he found himself no longer on a beach, but on a plane halfway across the world, flying over the ocean? 

"Come on partner, on my count," a girl about his age smiled at him. "One..." for some reason, Ben wasn't nervous. He was excited even. "Two... Three!"

Then they jumped. He could see the city of Auckland. How did he know that it was Auckland? He wasn't sure. As they neared the ground, Ben deployed his parachute perfectly, somehow. But he didn't land anywhere in New Zealand, instead landing in the city of Salvador, Brazil, still not understanding what was happening.

"Recuar!" Another girl his age yelled, pulling out a dagger from nowhere yelled, as Ben backed off. 

"Eu não estou aqui para te machucar!" He yelled, still not understanding what he said. 

The world around him faded as he fell on his butt, then, he was back in the dorm, next to his bed, on the floor. He must've fallen.

"What...?" a confused Eddie muttered, before looking over the side. "Hey, Ben, you okay?" he asked in a sleepy, but concerned voice.

"I think so," an equally confused Ben answered, and with that, Eddie slumped back onto the bed, falling asleep in seconds.

Ben got up, feeling slightly sore, and walked to the bathroom. He turned the cold water on, not bothering with the hot water. Filling up a handful of the stuff, he wet his face, waking up what ever part of him was still asleep. 

Then, he went into the hallway, sitting against the wall. 

"Ah shit," he said.


	16. Friendship is Nice. What Friendship Brings Is Also Nice.

The dorm door flew open, as one Ben rushed through it, putting his hand on the bed. A few seconds later, an Eddie came, tackling Ben onto the bed. A Zach also appeared, but slower, as he had opted to walk instead of run. 

"You're both children," Zach muttered as he walked over, closing the door. Eddie got off of Ben, hugging Zach.

"You sure about this? You can always back out," Eddie reminded him.

"Yeah. I am," Zach answered. 

"Okay. We're all wearing too much clothes," Eddie announced, as he separated himself from Zach and burnt his clothes off his body.

"Not a least bit civilised," Ben laughed, as he teleported his clothes off his body, with dramatic plumes of colourful smoke covering up the teleportation. 

Zach folded his arms as his clothes just... disintegrated. 

"Woah, how'd you do that?" Eddie asked, impressed. "I don't think they taught us that before."

"It started happening over the summer. The first time it happened was to a sketch I had terribly messed up. I learned to control it by the time school started," Zach explained. 

"That's cool, like really cool. Can you teach me?" Ben asked.

"Sure. Later?" Zach answered.

"Later," Ben confirmed, standing and kissing Zach. 

"Ooh, straight to the action, huh?" Eddie joked, getting the lube their dormmates kept stocked. 

"Nothing straight about it," Ben joked, before kneeling and taking Zach's dick in his mouth. 

Eddie took over kissing Zach as he ran his hands all over the other boy's body. Strangely, they all had birthdays just days within each other, along with Ellie. 

One of Ben's favorite thing to do during sex was communicate with mental magic. It relied on recreating voices, without the soundwaves actually existing. Ben never did it out of the blue, nor did he do it without a serious conversation with the partner(s) in question beforehand, outside of sex. It came in handy when other forms of communication were unreliable. It was also great practice for maintaining concentration in concentration-hostile environments. Like, for example, a threesome.

 _Hey, I'm getting close. You guys?_ Zach said. 

_Yeah._ Eddie replied. 

_Same here_ _,_ Ben agreed.

 _Let's rearrange ourselves then,_ Zach suggested and they broke apart. Zach went and laid back on the bed, lifting his legs to allow Eddie access. Ben moved off to the side, jerking off as Eddie began to finger Zach. 

Once Zach was ready, Eddie lined up with Zach's hole and slowly pushed in, before stopping to let Zach adjust.

"I'm good," Zach said after a minute, and Eddie started moving. Slowly at first, but gradually sped up. As Eddie moved faster, Zach's moans became shorter and more frequent. 

Ben made his way around Eddie, lubing up a finger before pushing it into Eddie's hole, before adding a second. He moved them in and out, finding a rhythm with Eddie's thrusting as he added a third finger, getting some moans from him. 

Finally, he lubed up his dick as he removed his fingers, before pushing into Eddie, and he slowed his thrusts as Ben entered, before they both started moving, soon finding a rhythm, as sounds from the three of them filled the room. 

Later that night, they cuddled up together, holding each other as they fell asleep.


	17. Shocking Memories Are Shocking.

Ben yawned as he woke up. He was in New York City, on vacation. 

"Come on down Ben, we're going to the breakfast place." That was his godsister. She was about five or so years older than Ben, but they were close. 

Ben got up and put on a shirt, before going and calling the elevator. It came rather quickly, and Ben and his godsister stepped into the elevator. After some time, they got off that elevator only to get on another. This one, took them to the ground lobby, where the rest of Benès cousins and his brothers were standing. 

Together, they went out into the crowd, but Ben noticed he felt like he was getting bumped a lot. He heard noises too, that he just couldn't put his finger on. And th-

He awoke in his bed, next to both Eddie and Zach. Suddenly, he remembered where he was and what had happened the night previous, bringing a smile to his face. 

That very smile disappeared when he felt that something was off. He looked closer at the two of them, and somehow, somewhere in the back of his head, he knew that they were having a shared dream. They were uncommon, but happened from time to time, especially in lovers. 

The next thing he noticed was that this shared dream wasn't a good one. They were both moving a lot, and Ben had to dodge a punch as he sat up. 

Ben, the evercurious soul he was, slipped into their dream, and it wasn't what he expected.

First of all, he was standing in a warzone. People were flying around, killing eachother, exchanging arrowfire, and just generally fighting. 

Second of all, the dream felt very similar to the memory-dreams he had from time to time. He didn't dwell on that though, because a huge warship flew in, wrecking havoc on the defenders. But this wasn't just any warship. Ben _recognized_ it. It appeared in his memory-dreams frequently. 

As a crew of dragons flew to attack the flying ship, one detoured to scorch the ground, which Ben just so happened to be in front of.

Ben woke up, startled and sweaty, and Eddie and Zach waking up shortly after. 

"We need to go to the Headmistress's office," Ben blurted out, getting out of bed to shower.

"Okay. Mind explaining why we need to bother Olivia at this ungodly hour?" Eddie asked. 

"I'll explain later. Let's shower," Ben responded.

And so they showered and put clothes on, a high feat for them. Then, they exited the dorm with Ben's heart beating to the moon and back. 

The two sleepy boys followed him, until they reached Olivia's office, from which her bedroom extended off of. Ben entered her office before knocking on her bedroom door.

"Wha... Who is it?" Olivia asked, unintentionally making it very clear that they woke her up.

"It's Ben. I'm here with Eddie and Zach," Ben said in a serious tone. 

Olivia emerged from her bedroom not a moment later, fully dressed as she gestured for the three to take a seat as she sat down in her chair. "What's wrong?" she asked, just as serious as Ben.

Eddie and Zach were very much confused, as all of this happened rather fast. It crossed Ben's mind to explain it, but he decided against it.

"It's the dreams," Ben answered, confirming Olivia's thoughts and furthering Eddie and Zach's confusion. 

"These two too?" she asked.

"Yes. They were experiencing a shared one," Ben confirmed. 

"Mind keying us in on what's going on, or can we go back to sleep now?" Zach asked. 

"Ben's been having these memory-like dreams a lot lately, and we can't figure out what they are," Olivia explained.

"Oh, those? Yeah, I've been having them for a long while too," Zach confirmed. 

"I started having them when school started," Eddie supplied. 

"Great," Olivia buried her face in her hands. "I'll guess I'll call Elena and Patrick to let them know. Elena said she might have some ideas anyways. Dismissed." And with that, the three boys left to wait for breakfast.


	18. A Little Carefulness is Always Required and Not Always Present

Ben was working with potions. It was in his plants class, and they were utilizing the Sagewater's sap, which proved a powerful explosive under the right circumstances. 

"Hey, Ben, up the flames some more, would ya?" Mr Woods asked. Woods was a particularly well-liked teacher, which was only helped by the fact that he was hot as fuck. Ben had heard of a few attempts by students to get into his bed, which he consistently turned down. 

"Sure," Ben said and tapped into the heat of the flames. He felt the heat all over his body, as if he was huddling over the fire. He then fed it his a small portion of his power, increasing that heat. And he increased it a little too much. The flames grew, as did the steam output. Ben quickly shrunk the flames drastically, drawing the steam back into the cauldron, liquidizing it. As soon as the problem started, it was resolved. It was a small, easily fixable mistake, but also not particularly easy to make, and the most common reason was emotional disarray. 

"Mr Woods, may I be excused?" Ben asked.

"Yes, you may," Mr Woods approved. It wasn't hard to get excused from Mr Woods class, especially after something like that. Ben extinguished the fire, before vanquishing the water and cooling the pot. 

He exited the class, heading for the fields. Not to calm himself, but to test something. He travelled to the lake, which happened to be free. He erected a pillar of earth, and found it to be twice as tall as he wanted. He then froze a part of the lake, and it bled over into areas he didn't want frozen. He undid the spells and worked over the next ten or so minutes recalibrating his magic, for he suspected his power had rapidly increased overnight. Long-term power growth was to be expected, but sudden rapid power growth like Ben's required a visit to the school nurse and a summons of the Headmistriss as they tried to figure out what caused it. 

Ben rushed into the school, heading for the nurse's office.

"Ms Roberts? I need the Headmistress," Ben said.

"Got it." And with that, she lit a candle on fire. Ben took note of it's green colour. Olivia entered not soon after.

"What is it Izzy, I was reading _Fingersmi_ \- oh, hello Ben," Olivia seemed a little flustered at seeing Ben there. 

"I think my power growth has turned unnatural high," Ben said. 

"Oh dear. That's not good," Ms Roberts said. Rapid power growth was one of the first symptoms of long-term magical exhaustion, a disease caused by extensive amounts of magic in short periods. It was a near death sentence if not caught extremely early, and they happened to go violently. Like, guts flying all over the place violently. 

Ms Roberts placed her hand near Ben's heart, before closing her eyes, and breathing deeply. Then, Ben felt an odd tingling sensation. Ms Roberts soon retracted her hand and shook her head. Both Ben and Olivia sighed in relief. 

"Okay. Now that that's over with, let's find out what's going on," Olivia said. 

The rest of the day was spent taking samples from him. Blood samples, hair samples, pee samples, and more. Afterward, when he went to sleep, he still had no idea why his power surged like it did. 


	19. Fuck.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now where did I leave that plot... ah, there it is!

Ben was walking to the field for his morning run. Next thing he knew, Olivia was walking with him. 

"Come with me. Elena and Pat are waiting," Olivia smiled, before walking into her office.

Darned all-important magical researchers, that may have information that could affect his entire life, did they really have to do this before his morning run? 

Knowing that keeping them waiting was off the table, as they would probably drag him into Olivia's office without moving an inch, he followed her, and not only was Elena and Patrick there but so was Eddie and Patrick. 

"Okay. What's this all about? And, far more importantly, why is it before my morning run?" Ben asked.

"Sorry to interrupt your running schedule Ben, but Elena and her team made a groundbreaking discovery last night that may pertain to you," Patrick explained. "Elena, would you like to explain?" 

"Yes. Last night concluded a year-long experiment, in which we found out a way to bend reality to a wizard- or should I say wizards'- will. We also found a way to detect those affected by it," Elena started.

"Wait, how can wizards bend reality to their will? How is that even possible?" Ben asked, a bit fearful of what it might mean for the future of magic and those who use it for nefarious purposes. 

"We still don't know. But don't worry, it's a very complicated, delicate, and difficult ritual. We recruited the world's most powerful and skilled wizards for the ritual, and we were only able to affect a square centimetre. It's unlikely anyone would be able to use it on a grander scale than that," Elena explained. "But we still think your memories may be related to the ritual we discovered. The only way to find out is to use the detection spell, which is much simpler."

"Okay," Eddie said. "Let's do this."

"Please hold out your hands," Elena requested, and the three of them complied, and Elena stood in the middle of it, breathing deeply before exhaling weird smoke as the lights dimmed, which travelled down onto their hands. As the smoke dissipated, the three's hands were glowing. 

"Holy shit," Zach said. 

"So, what does this mean now?" Eddie asked. 

"It means that we need to dive deep into your memories and draw out the last memory before whatever happened," Olivia answered.

"Like what we did in mental magic class?" Ben asked.

"Yes. But much harder, as the nature of these memories is unknown and not of this lifetime," Patrick answered.

And so they got up, putting fingers to foreheads, and then everything got quiet and awkward. None of the three boys could move, as that would break the connection. 

And then, they got sucked into a vortex. Going to another place, another time.

"Lucas, we have to. I'm telling you, we have no choice," The man who had appeared in all of Ben's dreams said.

"Ben, there has to be another way! They were defeated the first time," Lucas said. Wait, what did he call the man? Ben? Ben looked closer and recognized himself as the man in his dreams. 

"Lucas, there isn't one. Things were different back then, this world isn't strong enough to repel them and they've had who knows how long to prepare for it," Older Ben said.

"The world's changed, yeah, but we have to try. We're the strongest wizards in the universe!" Lucas argued. 

"And if one of us dies, it's game over for the universe. This is the thing that they can't stop and you know that," Older Ben argued right back.

"Fine, let's do this," Lucas said. 

"Thanks, buddy," Older Ben said, before looking to the other five people in the room. "Eddie, go get the time stone. Ellie, get the elementals. Maria set up the ritual, and Zach alert the League. Lucas and Lana, come help me set up some protective wards." Okay, Ben was freaked out enough by the man in his dreams being, well him, but now Eddie, Ellie, _and_ Zach were all a part of this as well? 

And with that, they all got to their jobs. Older Ben set up the first layer of wards, making it a good deal away from the building in which the ritual would presumably take place. Lana followed, setting up another layer, and Lucas set up the last layer. The three of them went into the basement of the building, where the other four were waiting. 

"Everything's ready," Ellie said, with a very serious tone in her voice.

"Good. Now, shall we begin?" Older Ben asked, and with an affirmative nod from the other six, a campfire in the middle of them roared with flames, as Older Zach opened a box on a table behind him, floating the stone directly over the fire, as the seven of them jointly supported it. They began to speak something which Ben couldn't understand but felt like he should. Ben wasn't even sure he could've transcribed it with all the time in the world. The flames grew taller, and reached for the stone, sucking it in. The stone melted and the flames took on a golden colour.

Another box was opened, and seven stones floated out- one for each person. These stones were quickly tossed into the flames, with some more chanting. 

Next, the seven of them took their weapons, tossing them on the flames as well, and of course more chanting. Although, Ben could've sworn that he heard the words, "Come to us in a time of need," but that may have just been Ben's imagination. 

With some more chanting, they fell back, exhausted, as the flames grew larger, they filled the air. They burnt through the walls, through the floor, through the ceiling. As the golden flames engulfed Older Ben, Ben jolted straight up in his chair, sweaty and exhausted.

After they showed the memory to the three adults, they left, and Ben felt too exhausted for a run now. 

Goddammit, why did they have to do that before his run?


	20. All-Important Researchers Care A Little Too Much About The Research

Ben, bored, was waiting on the field for the others. Patrick and Olivia had summoned them to the field, but he was the first there. And obviously by a longshot. He floated some water back and forth, but feeling like someone was behind him, he tossed it behind him, landing on the empty grass.

"Whatcha flinging water at?" Ellie asked. 

"Nothing," Ben answered. They waited in relative awkward silence, until Eddie came up to them. He greeted his boyfriend with a kiss, before hugging Ellie.

"How've you been?" he asked Ellie. 

"Good, I burnt my bedsheets though," Ellie smiled. 

"Poor bedsheets," Ben remarked. 

Zach came up to them, embracing them in a group hug, Patrick and Olivia following up. 

Breaking away, Ellie looked straight at Patrick. "Why are we here?" 

"Just to test out a theory of mine," Patrick said, tossing his hands in the air. Then he pulled out a small ring from his pocket, stating, "This is a ring that can temporarily block your magic. You can take it off at any time, but please keep it on for the experiment. So, who wants to go first?"

"Mind explaining this theory?" Ellie pressed. 

"Ellie," Olivia tried to calm her down, but Ellie largely ignored her. 

"It'll be better if I show you, who wants to go first?" Patrick repeated.

"I will," Ben volunteered. Ellie looked at him with a wild look on her face, but Ben stepped up to Patrick. Sliding the ring on, it tightened to fit his finger. 

Patrick then surpised him by tossing small rocks at him. Ben panicked, and in the next half second, he was standing in front of Patrick, with a sword held to Patrick's neck, the rocks still flying behind him undisturbed. 

"That," Patrick said, "was my theory."

Ben hastily pulled back the sword, frightened, panicked, and worried at what he'd just done. He looked down, and the sword was gone.

"Now, who's next?" Patrick asked, healing a scratch Ben had given him when retracting his sword. 


	21. The Best Kind of Friends Are Those That Will Raise Hell For You.

Ellie stormed up to Patrick. 

"What the hell was that for?" she demanded. Ben was still shocked by the appearance of the sword. 

"For science?" Patrick asked, obviously scared of the teenager. 

"I'm going to science your-" Ellie began to threaten Patrick, but was quickly cut off.

"Okay, okay, enough," Olivia, said, creating a barrier between the two. Turning to Patrick, she asked, "What in the holy fucking hell was that, Patrick Adonis Papadopoulous?"

"Just a quick experiment to test out if those weapons tossed into that fire were... enchanted, to help them in times of need!" Patrick answered quicker than a dracula ant snapping it's jaws shut. 

No one noticed the grass turning yellow, until Zach stood up, marching over to Patrick, "You put a life in danger to test out a theory? More importantly, you put _Ben's_ life in danger to test out a theory. And when it came down to it, you couldn't even justify it. You didn't even make Ben aware of the research and it's risks or goal. No ethics committee would've permitted this, and you know it. You're a disgrace to the research and scientific community."

Ben didn't catch Patrick's reply, everything became too overwhelming. 

Suddenly, he heard a voice in his head. _You wanna go to the dorms?_ Eddie asked him. Ben nodded, and Eddie wrapped his arm around him, comforting him as they walked back to the dorms in peace. 

As Eddie sat with Ben on Eddie's bed, Ben had a million and one thoughts zooming through his head.

_What kind of person am I that puts a sword to someone's neck?_

_Where did that sword come from?_

_Why didn't I stand up for myself back there?_

_I'm a horrible person._

_What if that had been Eddie? Or Zach?_

_What if I had_ killed _him? I would never been able to live with that._

He wanted to cry out, confess to Eddie all of these thoughts in his arms. But he didn't. He couldn't. He just broke down while Eddie held him and rubbed his back. 


	22. Holiday Times and Family Fun.

"So, you got a girlfriend?" Mariana, Ben's older cousin, asked. 

"Boyfriend, actually," Ben responded, obviously shocking Mariana with an actual answer.

"What's he like?" Mariana asked.

"Handsome, kind, smart, just all around amazing, especially in bed. Ther-" Ben began.

"Okay, that's enough, forget I ever asked," Mariana playfully gagged. "I'm happy for you. When can I bea- meet him?" 

"First of all, no beating up my boyfriend. Second of all, he's coming tomorrow," Ben answered.

"Certain family members may try to beat him up," Mariana teased.

"If they want to go toe-to-toe with a pyromaniac wizard, they can try," Ben laughed.

"I think I'll like him," Mariana teased.

"Sorry, think I'm needed in the kitchen. See you later." Ben waved, spotting his other cousin. He had a lot of cousins. 

It turned out that Ben was needed in the kitchen. Ben was the one that would barbecue the meat tomorrow, and so he also got tasked with marinating it. 

As he went to go get a bowl, he spotted his aunt.

"Hi," he said as he maneurved to the table.

"Hi! How have you been?" his aunt, Camila, excitedly asked. 

"Good! You?" Ben asked as he hugged his aunt.

"Good, good. So, your boyfriend's coming over tomorrow?" Camila asked.

"Yeah, I'm going to his house in the morning for presents and lunch, and we'll come over here for presents and dinner," Ben answered. 

"I am totally giving him baby pictures of you," Camila teased.

"I have a sudden feeling that I should hunt down every baby picture of me in existence and burn it," Ben laughed as he dipped the short ribs in the sauce. 

"You know not even that will stop me," Camila laughed.

As Ben finished the rest of the meat, he and his aunt talked and laughed all the way. 

* * *

As the light poured into his months-abandoned room, Ben opened his eyes. He and Eddie had set up the portals a few days ago, so all Ben had to do was walk through it. 

Ben walked down into the kitchen, where no one was. He made himself a bowl of cereal, eating it up as his dad and uncle came in. 

After he washed his dish, he walked over to the sink, washing it and putting it away. 

Then, he walked out the door, heading over for a "wall" of plants as he called in years ago. He walked through the semi-visible portal, although it was hard to see with all the foliage. 

Just like that, he went from sunshine and birds chirping to dark skies and everything dead asleep. Except for the ants, those motherfuckers never sleep. 

Ben had visited Eddie's house a few times over the years, so he practically had the common areas memorized. 

After he went into the house, he headed to the living room where he picked up a chess book on opening theory and began reading it.

He reached a detailed analysis of the Evan's Gambit before his boyfriend came down. Ben got up and hugged him as he carefully set the book down as to not lose his page. 

"How are you?" Ben asked.

"Good, sleepy though," Eddie told him.

"Come, sit with me on the couch," Ben said, and Eddie sat to his right, as Ben wrapped his arm around his boyfriend and picked his book back up. 

"Merry Christmas," Ben said as he played with Eddie's hair. It was going to be one hell of a Christmas. 


	23. Orgies and Dreams.

Ben was in a cave. Not a wet, dark cave, like one would expect, but more of a civilized cave. Ben had quickly found out it was a military base, inside a mountain. 

"... Ben, I don't want to hear anymore of it," A man in heavy armor, that Ben had taking to calling, "Bob," said. 

"General, please, we need to send a search team," Ben said. 

"Ben, the Immortals died off millions of years ago. I don't want to get anyone's hopes up, they _are_ gone," Bob said. 

"You don't understand, this woman, she was doing magic, and I didn't feel any connection to the elements from her!" Ben said. 

"Ben, you don't understand! The Immortals were everything to us. They taught us the secret of immortality, they taught us magic so advanced that humanity was able to spread out and populate the universe. And then, _they_ came, and the Immortals were wiped out. It was a insult to injury, given that the vast, vast majority of humans died off during that horrific time," Bob said, emotion seeping into his voice.

Suddenly, an ungodly sound filled the tunnel, sending the two men into a panic. They rushed into a seemingly dead end, but Bob sank a part of it into the ground, revealing a war room.

"What's going on?" 

"A fleet's heading here. ETA's half an hour. They surprised us, took advantages in our detection system. We're trying to get backup, but it's unlikely that any will get here in time," A woman in military uniform, presumably high-ranking, told Bob. 

"Got it. We can hold out until help arrives. Remember, losing is not a option here," Bob told everyone. They room became empty as the officers dissappeared into various parts of the mountain. Ben sank into the ground, reappearing atop a peak not far from the mountain base. 

With relative ease, he lifted four mountains into the air, before creating thousands of boulders falling inbetween the size of a one-story house, and the size of the Tropical Islands Resort. 

Suddenly, he launched a boulder into the sky. It collided with a fast-moving object, sending debris flying. 

He started launching boulder after boulder, striking spaceship after spaceship. Eventually, they started firing back, and Ben started using the boulders to block their attacks while also attacking them. 

Then, a ship of magnifigant size appeared. It was so large it blocked out the sun entirely. The other ships stopped firing, as if waiting to see the ship destroy Ben. 

Ben grinned, before launching a mountain at it. A weapon aboard the ship disintegrated it, turning the mountain into pebbles. Ben launched the other three, with two encountering the same fate as the first, but the fourth struck the backside of the ship, and the ship wobbled, before falling out of the sky. Now, seeing the ship fall, the others resumed their firing, and Ben was quickly running out of boulders. He tried to block the blasts with whatever he could, lightning, water, even tried opening portals to redirect their attacks. But he couldn't keep it up. His efforts tired him out, especially using the portals. A blast headed for him, and should've killed him, but an earth spike popped up, blocking the attack, and Ben turned around, seeing Eddie, Ellie, and Zach, along with the three from his other memory. 

Ben let out a sigh of relief, as the other six took over the fighting. As he laid down to rest, everything went black. 

* * *

Ben woke up in his comfy bed at the school, to a room full of light. The first thing he registered was that it was way too bright, and the second was moaning. Jack was fucking Eddie, and Kyle was fucking Pat. The other dormmates must've already left, but not apparently without adding their fair share of cum onto the walls, the floors, and the beds. 

Then, it hit Ben like a ton of bricks. They had collectively decided to have an orgy the second day after break was over, since classes didn't start up for a few days, as the school wanted people to readjust to the school. 

Eddie had suggested that the best way to do that, was with an orgy. Nobody disagreed. 

Ben figured that the others left to go get food, and maybe bring back more people to fuck. 

Then, Ben realized that he had slept in, and apparently through, an incredibly loud orgy, and began to laugh. 

This laughter froze the room, as the others looked at Ben. 

"Hello, welcome to the living," Eddie remarked.

"Love you too," Ben smiled.

Kyle became all dramatic as he fell down, nearly pulling out of Pat. "Oh no, PDA, my weakness!" 

"Kyle, you're literally fucking me in front of three other guys. I think we're past the point of PDA," Pat said. This was all routine for them and it came up pretty often whenever Eddie and Ben got too, "lovey-dovey". 

As if on cue, the door opened, and the rest of their dormmates came in with food, and Aidan and Zach. Ben brought the two boys to the bathroom, where the three washed up, doing all the preparation necessary for a 21st century orgy. Luckily, magic had become advanced enough that spells were able to prevent STI transmission, given that a wizard was there to refresh it every now and then. 

The three came out, and Ben grabbed some grub, eating it up. With the ten of them, the food disappeared quickly, and Ben sank to his knees, taking Henry's, a dormmate of his, dick into his mouth. Several fingers appeared at his entrance, opening him up before whoever it was slid their dick into him. 

Ben had the most stamina out of the group, so by the time Henry and, as it turned out to be, Zach, had come, Ben still hadn't, so Henry sucked him off for a bit, until Ben came. Then, he bent over, as Kyle came around and pushed into him, before proceeding to jackhammer Ben. Ben had learnt the different fucking styles of his friends, at least when they topped. Kyle, like he was now, preferred to go rough and fast. Eddie, on the other hand, was slow and methodical, using his hands and his words to enhance his partner's experience. Zach was slow and loving, whispering words of appreciation into his partner's ear as he caressed their body. 

Ben came again, shortly before Kyle did. Then he eyed Jack, coming over and sitting on his dick. 

"Must be one hell of a morning for you, eh?" Jack asked. 

"If this is what hell's like, book me a ticket for eternity," Ben joked. 

"Only if you take me with you," Jack said. Ben laughed, as Jack came. Jack jerked off Ben as he rested on his cock. 

The two separated, as Ben turned Eddie around, kissing him as he came in Kyle's ass. As Kyle moved away, Ben lubed up his dick, sliding it into Eddie's hole. Ben gave Eddie another kiss, as he bottomed out in Eddie. 

_Yeah_ , Ben thought. _I could live forever like this_.


	24. Oh Come On, What Now?

Ben was currently on his knees sucking Eddie's cock, so he didn't really register the door opening.

"Hey, lovebirds, Olivia wants us in her office," Ellie said all of a sudden, alerting both boys to her presence. Jack, who was the only other one in the room, chuckled at the two's inconvenience. 

Reluctantly, Ben and Eddie separated, putting on enough clothes to go to the Headmistress's office without getting hit with an spell that made you feel itchy all over. Honestly, Ben thought that should be banned under the Geneva Conventions. 

Following Ellie, the three were joined by Zach as they headed to Olivia's office. 

"What's going on?" Zach said. 

"Fuck me if I know, all I know was Olivia told me to go and get these two," she gestured to Ben and Eddie, "Never said anything about why."

They walked the rest of the way in silence, wondering what in all the world was going on. 

It had been a few weeks since the break, and things had slowed down. Except for their classes. Olivia and the rest of the staff had been throwing everything in their reservoir at the four. They had been detached from the regular curriculum, much to their disappointment. Classes were where their friends were. But it had quickly been made obvious that their new curriculum was far more fast-paced than the regular one. Along with practical ones, such as cleaning and first-aid, they had been learning advanced combative magic, which was usually reserved for the final two years of their education. 

Upon reaching the now familiar door, Zach knocked on it. The door swung inward, as Olivia motioned for them to enter from her comfy seat. 

As the four sat down, Olivia asked, "I presume none of you have an idea for why I summoned you here?" 

"Not a fucking clue," Ellie responded quicker than lightning. 

"Thought so. Well, you have learned everything this school has to offer. Now, typically we would let you go on and you know, graduate. However, we need to decide what happens after you leave," Olivia told them. 

"What does that mean? Wouldn't we just go on and live our lives?" Zach asked. 

"Normally, yes, but it seems that there are some unusual circumstances with you four. For one, a prophecy was spoken during your break," Olivia casually mentioned. 

Ben's eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets. Prophecies were very rarely spoken, typically only describing major, major events. The last recorded prophecies had predicted the Fall of Rome and the Black Death. Several more were theorized to exist, but there was nothing to support these theories. 

"There was a _prophecy_ and you didn't tell us?" Ellie nearly shouted, in a mix of shock, anger, and disbelief. 

"Hey, we were only able to decipher the subjects of the damn thing yesterday," Olivia told them. "We believe you four, with three others, are destined to battle some otherworldly threat. We don't know what it is, when it's coming, or even where it's coming. Prophecies are messy business, not easy to decipher, or at least not clearly." 

As one, they collectively said, "Oh shit." 

"Where do we start?" Ellie asked.

"To hell if I know, that's so little information for such a vague topic," Eddie said. 

Ben, was also asking the same question. 

"Bob," he said all of a sudden. 

"Bob? Who's Bob?" Olivia asked. 

"Um, this guy in my dream-memories. No one actually says his name, and just calls him 'General' a lot, so I started calling him Bob," Ben said sheepishly. 

"Oh, muscular dude, chiseled face, totally looks like a DILF?" Zach asked. 

"What is a-" Olivia tried to ask. 

"Dad I'd like to fuck," Ben answered before she could complete the question. "And that's the guy." 

"He keeps building military bases in mountains, correct?" Ellie asked. 

"Yup. Civilized caves," Ben said, sending the room into giggles. 

"He leads an army of crazy powerful wizards?" Eddie asked. 

"Yeah," Ben said. 

"Is this him?" Olivia asked, setting down a picture- Ben instantly recognized him as Bob.

"Yeah, that's him," Ben said. 

"Where'd you get that photo?" Eddie asked. 

"Well, I was recruited into a team to investigate unusual magical activity, and we kept seeing a lot of similar- too similar- magical signatures throughout history. We were able to reconstruct a rough image of what they would look like, based on their magical signature. Good news, last sighting of that signature was in the Himalayas," Olivia told them. 

"So, we've got to go to the Himalayas?" Zach asked. 

"Pretty much. Rest is up to you," Olivia said. "Oh, one more thing, I have to teach you one more ability that might help you."

"What is it?" Ellie asked. 

"The ability to translate between languages," Olivia told them. Ben was sure his eyes were replaced with dinner plates, and looking around, his friends had the same reaction.

"How?" Ben asked. 

"It's a mind magic technique. Languages exist because they mean something. People are able to associate those sounds with images, concepts, or feelings. The key is being able to subconsciously decipher those images, concepts, and feelings," Olivia explained. "The even trickier part, is doing it the other way. You kind of have to project those raw images, concepts, or feelings into the other person's mind, and their brain will naturally interpret it in their native language. "

* * *

All Ben was going to say, is that their graduation was delayed several days. Once their graduation _did_ roll around, it was a small thing, unlike typical graduations. The four students said their goodbyes, and left. 

"Where do we go first?" Ellie asked. 

"Wanna come to my house?" Zach asked. "It's not far, in Alexandria actually."

"Sure," Ben said, Ellie and Eddie quickly hopping on board as well. 

Making their way through the portals, it didn't take long to reach Zach's home. 

"My parents mostly live on the other side of the country, but they still maintain this house for me," Zach told them. "Want me to cook something up?" 

"Sure. I can help, if you want," Ellie said. 

"I would love that. Ben? Eddie?" Zach smiled at Ellie. 

"I think I have to explore the house with my boyfriend for a hot minute. Don't worry, we'll be back for food," Ben smiled slyly. 

"Sure, explore," Ellie teased. 

Taking that as approval, Ben took Eddie's hand and rushed up the stairs, all but dragging Eddie with him. 

Finding one of the bedrooms, Ben pulled Eddie in. 

"Want to test out this bed with me?" Ben asked. 

"Couldn't imagine doing anything else," Eddie said, leaning in to kiss Ben. 

Ben dropped to his knees, before pulling Eddie's pants down, taking his cock into his mouth. 


	25. They Really Don't Teach Enough In History Classes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um, this ended up being a little long, and perhaps a bit dull. Hope you enjoy!

It turned out, that mountaintops are cold. 

But that was fine. They had a fire, and everything was doing great. 

"So, how do we find a wizard that doesn't want to be found?" Eddie said, for the umpteenth time. They had already been in the Himalayas for a week now trying to find Bob, but a landslide, explosion and several government inquiries later they still hadn't found the dude. 

They were running out of ideas. 

Ellie, all of a sudden, sat straight up, as if she had a lightbulb moment. 

"Wait. Don't rumors have it that there's random people-, wizards- around here who help those lost and stuff?" she said. 

"Yeah," Eddie agreed. They all knew this, locals had told them this already. 

"What if they like, know him?" Ellie said. 

"Mysterious all-powerful wizard connected with randomly appearing and disappearing wizards who help people out. Doesn't not make sense," Ben added. 

"So what? We get ourselves in trouble and just hope one appears so that we can ask them?" Eddie says. "Yeah right. Like that'll work." 

"They might lead us to him though," Zach pointed out. "Everyone, even those who haven't broken into magic, has a unique magical signature, right? Something that only they can produce. What if we track it?"

"That's a good idea. There's even videos on the internet we can use to locate a signature," Ellie suggested. 

* * *

A few days later, and they had obtained three rocks, each with a different magical signature on it. They were able to narrow it down to a few places here and there, and planned to check it out the next morning. 

And so, exhausted from the day's work of finding the third rock, Ben's head hit his makeshift bed, enchanted for comfort, and began to doze off. 

Of course, until a figure dropped onto the ledge outside of the cave. 

Ben knew something was wrong, but he didn't move. Instead, he prepared to launch the invader into the opposing mountain. 

"I would prefer to not go flying without my explicit consent," the figure said, in an accent that threw Ben off. He'd heard it before, but wasn't sure _where_. 

Slowly sitting up, Ben asked straight up. "Who are you?" 

"I'm the General, and I've heard you've been looking for me," the figure said. 

"Yeah right," Ben said, head falling back to the bed. 

_"You might want to_ _reconsider_ _,"_ he said. And Ben fully woke up, as if a gallon of ice cold water had been poured on him. 

He hadn't said that in English, nor any other language in the history of humanity. 

It was the language he had heard in his dreams. 

"Holy motherfucking shit," Ben said in shock. Looking at the General, he asked, "Can I wake up my friends and then we can go to wherever the fuck you live?" 

"Sure, take your time-" he tried to say before Ben summoned ice cold water and poured it onto the others. 

Eddie, who had been some level of awake pre-attack of the cold water, woke up fully, sending a glare Ben's way, before noticing Bob and sending a beam of fire his way. 

The General just held up a hand, and Eddie's fire stopped not five inches from the General. 

By this time, Ellie and Zach had begun to stir, and the site of the armored man almost certainly sped the process up, as they also attacked the General, who had stopped their attacks with the same ease he did Eddie's. 

"Relax guys. That's the General," Ben said. 

"Tell the General to approach us at a more reasonable time," Zach grumbled. 

"Give us some time to get dressed and wake up and then we go to wherever the fuck you live?" Ben asked.

"Sure," he shrugged. 

Surprisingly, getting dressed was not a metaphor for sex, but was the act of putting clothes on. 

Once dressed, they followed Bob, who was waiting outside. 

Ben expected Bob to like, teleport them or something, but instead he opened up a tunnel. 

"You suck," Ellie told Bob.

"Hey, it'll wake you up," he smiled. 

The walk was long, and it had turned Bob's home-thing was in a mountain around the opposite side of the mountain they had set up in. 

Soon enough, they walked into a civilized cave. 

There was a window, strangely showcasing an live aerial view of Paris. 

"What?" Ben asked, staring at the window. 

"Ah yes, that, I call my window to the world. It can show me any view from any perspective. Although it does have the drawback of random wizards detecting it. None have dug too deeply yet, but that could change," Bob said. 

"Seems kind of risky," Eddie said. 

"It is, but it's also incredibly useful, anyways, why were you looking for me?" Bob asked them. 

"We've been having some memories. They're not from this life, they seem too futuristic. They feature you a lot though," Ben told him. 

"Really, may I see?" Bob asked. 

"Sure," Ben said, lifting his fingers to Bob's forehead. Although, they only stayed there a moment before Bob removed them. 

"Oh dear," Bob told them. "I don't have those memories at all. Those never happened, at least, not in this timeline." 

"Do you have any information?" Ellie asked. 

"Yes. Although it's a lot. Anyone want water before we start?" Bob asked. 

So, after some water, Bob waved a hand, and the room changed around them. 

"What's that?" Eddie asked. He was obviously referring to the glowing white sphere in front of them, since that was the only thing around them besides them and the perpetual darkness. 

"That, is the beginning of everything. It contains the pure, raw ingredients to make the universe as we know it," Bob said. 

"Huh. Not what I thought it would be," Zach said, sipping some water. 

"A lot of things aren't," Bob smiled. Ben looked closely at the sphere, and noticed it was coming loose. 

"What's happening?" he asked. 

"From what we could tell, the sphere began to destabilize, eventually resulting in an-" Bob was cut off by the sphere exploding, and all Ben could see was white. 

As soon as it came, the light died down, and Ben looked around, seeing stars, and... floating lights?

Bob reached out, as if to touch one, but it went straight through his hand. 

"These are the Immortals. A race of super-beings, they can take any shape they want, although it's still an incredibly long time until the first one settles into one shape," he said. 

Then, everything seemed to speed up. Ben saw supernovas compressed into seconds, planets form and then disappear, and then everything settled down. Ben only saw Bob smile for a moment before he felt like he was yanked to one side. 

Still recovering from the change of scenery, Ben only heard Ellie mutter, "... Earth?" 

Taking a look, Ben saw a planet, which was either Earth or Earth's doppelgänger. 

"Yes it is, albeit a few hundred million years ago," Bob told them as a spaceship zoomed by them, a clear human pilot inside. 

"Wait, did humans evolve twice?" Zach asked. 

"Yes, they did. No one knows how, but they did," Bob answered him as they flew towards an office. 

"This is humanity's command center. All space operations were commanded from here," Bob said, as Ben spotted a map. 

"What are those markings?" he asked. 

"Sightings of the Immortals. Humanity still doesn't know what they are, but soon they'll start a war against them, resulting in a few marriages between the two species, but nothing really came out of those except the solidification of peace before the humans and the Immortals. Humanity became the Immortals protégée, per say. Wizards studied under them, and the Immortals safeguarded and helped them along in their colonization of the universe," Bob said. "The Immortals could only die two ways, one, was by the hand of another Immortal, in which case the prevailing Immortal absorbs the dead one. The second, is by the hand of a wizard. But the Immortal essence didn't care that it wasn't killed by a wizard, it still tried to get absorbed. Only no human could handle that much power, so they spontaneously combusted." 

Ben felt like he was holding back a big but, and clearly Ellie did too. 

"And humanity's currently not on any other planet because...?" Ellie asked. 

"Every time something happens, or doesn't happen, the universe splits in two, one universe where it did happen, and one where it didn't. These universes could be nearly identical, or completely different," Bob started. "There was one universe, where a species of magic-resistant beasts dominated. They developed intelligence and emotions, until they all somehow became hostile. All they wanted to do was conquer and kill. We found a few universes that had already been wiped out of any life. Of course, the second they opened a portal there, a universe became in which they never did, but that's besides the point." Ben felt sick as he watched the beasts torment each other as far as the eyes could see. 

"And then they came for us. By this time, humanity was a force to be reckoned with. Supernatural threats had existed for millions of years, so humanity responded with an army. An army of the universe's best wizards. Combat wizards, who trained under the very Immortals themselves. A half-immortality state was even reached, protected from all aging and diseasing. We were called the Legion, and I was a rising force in it. I was easily one of the most powerful, but that wouldn't matter soon." A younger, more inexperienced Bob was walking in a military base, presumably lower-ranking wizards- nearly all of them- saluting him. 

"The first thing we noticed was the portal. For a while it was inactive, but the Legion guarded it all the same. Even the almighty Immortals hung around. Then, the first one came out. We were barely able to restrain it without the Immortals help. Then, we discovered the third way an Immortal could die, and it was at the hands of one of those beasts." The portal was unlike anything Ben had ever seen. It was an ungodly sight, like it was unnatural, an aberration of mother nature herself. Then an even more ungodly sight came. One could've told Ben it was the incarnation of the all things bad and Ben would've agreed in a heartbeat. The sight struck fear and worry into Ben's heart. Then he felt an arm around him, he didn't even need to look to know it was Eddie, leaning into him. 

"It was quickly followed by a second, a third, a fourth, until eventually an entire hoard was here, slaughtering people left right and center." Ben didn't need to see much, flashes of war, people dying, people getting mauled by the things. He buried his face in Eddie's arm, preferring to listen to Bob's narration without the visuals. 

"We threw everything we had at it, bringing down the full strength of the Immortals and Legion combined. And it worked, we drove them back, managed to close up the portal," Bob took two deep breaths, before continuing. "But it was at a great cost. The once trillions was reduced to around three million. The Immortals were never seen again, and are believed to be extinct. All of human civilization had been razed, the last non-legionnaires probably dying out in some hole in the ground. The remainder of us agreed to split up, retire, and travel the wasteland of a universe," Bob said. Looking up, Ben saw that they were back in that room that had started in, and a few tears were rolling down Bob's face. 

He quickly wiped those up. 

"Was there someone else...?" Ellie asked. 

"Ah yes, the other bit. This is important, so listen up. When we closed up our side of the portal, two of my best friends slipped inside with the goal of closing it from the other side. We assumed they had done it, since no more came through. To this day, a pair of gates stand where the portal was first opened, preventing those things from coming here again. Based on the memories you showed me, I believe that in an alternate timeline, far into the future, the beasts got through, they wore down the gates and broke open. I believe that's why your future selves reset the universe to just over a decade and a half ago," Bob said. 

Ben connected the dots. "So those golden flames swept through the entire universe and reset it?" 

"Yes," Bob told him. Bob walked over to a cabinet, pulled out a bottle of some alcoholic drink. 

Zach gasped. "But just this universe right? Other universes, like the one the beasts came from, wouldn't have been affected. So, although we were reset to a time where the beasts hadn't broken through our gates, their gates were still shredded. Meaning that while before they would've taken millions of years to get through, they would only have to deal with opening up our side of the portal. And they already had experience doing it once, doing it twice would be no problem!" 

"Correct. And remember, they would've been at it non-stop, for your entire lives. Who knows how long until those things come back?" Bob asked. 

"What can we do?" Ellie asked him. 

"You can train. I believe you four, and those others that were in the future with you, are destined to fight off these beasts together. And right now, you don't know enough of the truly advanced magics to stand a chance against them, I'll reach out and try to gain more information, but in the meantime, I'll set you up with a close friend of mine. He'll teach you, if you want," Bob offered. 

Ben looked at Eddie, and at Ellie and Zach.

"Let's do this."


	26. Training To Fight Otherwordly Creatures is Tough.

Bob's friend had a really complicated name with lots of weird sounds, but he went by Michael to people not millions of years old. 

"These beasts don't respond to magic. You could blast them with fire as hot as the sun and it won't affect them," Michael started. It seemed liked the more Ben heard about these things the more he wanted to erase their universe from existence. 

"So we had to adapt to a new way of combat. One where we used weapons and indirect magic over blasting things." Michael pulled out a knife. 

"Wait, we have weapons just like those!" Zach exclaimed. Ben had asked the other three to try and see if they had weapons. Sure enough, they did. Eddie had a bow with a seemingly limitless quiver, Ellie had a spear, and Zach, had a very, very cool scythe. 

"Really?" Michael lifted an eyebrow. "Mind showing me?" 

"Sure!" Zach excitedly jumped out of his spot, quickly summoning his scythe. Ellie followed, making her way over to Zach, and summoning her spear. Eddie simply summoned his bow, raising it high enough for Michael to see, earning an exasperated sigh from Ellie. Ben summoned his sword, which he had since come to terms with, and levitated it over to Michael, at which Ellie face-palmed. 

Michael grabbed Ben's sword, looking it over. 

"This metal. It was last spotted sixty million years ago, and that deposit drained up quickly. How did you get this?" Michael asked them. 

They all looked at each other.

"We, uh, didn't?" Eddie sort of answered. 

"Long story short, we can summon these weapons at will and we have no idea how," Ellie told him bluntly.

"Ah. I see. I presume none of you are trained with your weapons?" Michael correctly assumed. 

"That is correct," Ben told him. 

"No worries, I luckily am no beginner when it comes to weapons. However, we will not be using sharp metal weapons, but rather practice ones. For now, at least," Michael smiled, as he tossed out the practice weapons.

"Does that mean I hit people with mine?" Ellie asked. 

"Yes," Michael told her. Ben, Eddie, and Zach collectively moved away from Ellie. 


End file.
